Herb Robert

Geranium robertianum

Geraniaceae

3rd June 2020

Geranium is from the Greek geranos, the word for a crane, as a geranium’s fruit resemble the head and beak of the bird, and gives them the name Crane’s-bill. Robertianum, could be named after three people, the first a French abbot, Saint Robert of Molesme who founded Cireaux Abbey in France, and used the plant to to staunch wounds and heal ulcers. Saint Robert’s feast day falls on the 29th April, the time when the plant is coming into flower. The second Robert, Duke of Normandy was son of William the Conqueror, and patron of medical botany who used the plant to cure the plague. And the third, the one I like the most is the house goblin, Robin Goodfellow (also known as Hobgoblin or Puck), following an ancient association. 

Collins, ‘Straggling hairy annual of shady hedgerows, rocky banks and woodlands. FLOWERS 12-15mm across with pink petals and orange pollen; in loose clusters. FRUITS Hairy, ending in a long beak. LEAVES Hairy; deeply cut into 3 or 5 pinnately divided lobes; often tinged red.’

So quite a hairy plant! I found lots of these perfectly formed pink flowers hiding under a bridge in the garden, but the leaves do have a bit of a smell, an ‘acrid, mousy stench’ as wonderfully described by Richard Mabey, and perhaps this is the reason the plant, although very pretty, doesn’t immediately attract me. However, I do like the (hairy) leaves which are fern-esque, and very pleasingly formed.

It flowers from April through to October.

Alice x